Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy came about as a result of a committee of psychologists
headed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956. Three areas were identified as key
domains.
The cognitive - knowledge based domain, consisting of six levels
The affective - attitudinal based domain, consisting of five levels
The psychomotor - skills based domain, consisting of six levels.
The cognitive domain (Bloom, 1956) involves knowledge and the
development of intellectual skills. This includes the recall or recognition of
specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development
of intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major categories, which are
listed in order below, starting from the simplest behavior to the most
complex. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is,
the first ones must normally be mastered before the next ones can take place.
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Knowledge: Recall data or information.
Comprehension: Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation,
and interpretation of instructions and problems.
Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an
abstraction.
Analysis: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that
its organizational structure may be understood.
Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements.
Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials. The affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, Masia, 1973) includes the manner
in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values,
appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The five major
categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex: • Receiving Phenomena: Awareness, willingness to hear, demonstrating
selected attention.
• Responding to Phenomena: Active participation on the part of the
learners. Attends and reacts to a particular phenomenon.
• Valuing: The worth or value a person attaches to a particular object,
phenomenon, or behavior. This ranges from simple acceptance to the
more complex state of commitment.
• Organization: Organizes values into priorities by comparing and
contrasting different values, resolving conflicts between them, and
creating a unique value system.
• Internalizing values (characterization): Has a value system that
controls their behavior. The behavior is pervasive, consistent,
predictable, and most importantly, characteristic of the learner. The psychomotor domain (Simpson, 1972) includes physical movement,
coordination, and useof the motor-skill areas. Development of these skills
requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance,
procedures, or techniques in execution. The seven major categories are listed
from the simplest behavior to the most complex:
• Perception: The ability to use sensory cues to guide motor activity.
• Set: Readiness to act. It includes mental, physical and emotional sets.
• Guided Response: The early stages in learning a complex skill that
includes imitation and trial and error.
• Mechanism: Learned responses are habitual and movements are
performed with proficiency.
• Complex Overt Response: Skillful performance of motor acts
involving proficient, complex movement patterns.
• Adaptation: Skills are well-developed patterns can be modified as
needed.
• Origination: Creating new movement patterns; learning outcomes are
creative.
The revised Bloom’s Taxonomy developed by Anderson et al (2001)
considered metacognition to better reflect 21st century students and faculty.
The group represented “cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists, and
instructional researchers and testing/assessment specialists “(Anderson, &
Krathwohl, 2001, p. xxviii).
The new terms are defined as:
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Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant
knowledge from long-term memory.
Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic
messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing,
inferring, comparing and explaining.
Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or
implementing.
Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how
the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose
through differentiating, organizing and attributing.
Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through
checking and critiquing.
Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional
whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through
generating, planning, or producing. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001, pp.
67-68)
References: Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for
learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of
educational objectives: Complete edition, New York: Longman. Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R.(Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank,
K.A., Mayer, R.E. Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A
taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Complete edition). New York:
Longman.
Forehand, M. (2005). Bloom’s taxonomy: Original and revised. In M. Orey
(Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.
Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/.